Recently, electronic devices using wireless communication technology with Bluetooth (registered trademark) have become widely used. For example, these types of electronic devices include information processing devices such as music players, mobile telephones, small mobile terminal devices, personal computers; output devices such as headphones and speakers; and input devices such as remote controllers, mice, and keyboards. There are wireless communication technologies, like the Bluetooth wireless technology, that can be used with other products whether or not the other products are made by the same manufacturer so long as the products conform to a unified standard or are compatible in other ways.
In wireless communication with Bluetooth, communication is conducted between a master device and a slave device. The master device starts and controls the wireless communication when communicating with the slave device. The slave device conducts wireless communication under the control of the master device, that is, the slave device serves as a destination device to be connected.
For example, multiple master devices (e.g., two personal computers) may use one slave device (e.g., one set of headphones; hereinafter also referred to as “a headphone”). In this case, when the slave device is connected to a first master device, a second master device (another master device) cannot use the slave device whether or not the slave device is being used at that time. The connection between the first master device and the slave device must be disconnected for the second master device to be able to use the slave device. This type of disconnection operation is troublesome for the user.
Moreover, if the connected first master device has an automatic reconnection function, the slave device will be automatically reconnected to the first master device due to the automatic reconnection function even if the user disconnects the connection between the slave device and the first master device. As a result, switching the connection to the second master device cannot be performed smoothly.
An object of the present disclosure is to provide an electronic device that can easily allow the switching of connections between multiple devices.